Obama Defends Attacks on Romney, Bain Capital

President Barak Obama responds to a question from the news media during his closing press conference of the NATO Summit in Chicago.

President Barack Obama defended his attacks on Republican Mitt Romney‘s career at Bain Capital, saying if the former businessman thinks his private-equity experience translates to running the U.S. economy then he’s “missing what this job is about.”

“When you’re president, as opposed to head of a private-equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits,” Mr. Obama said at a press conference at the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Chicago. he added: ”Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”

The Obama campaign has used Mr. Romney’s time at the private-equity firm Bain Capital to try to brand him as a corporate raider, including releasing an ad about a former steel company, GST Steel, that went bankrupt eight years after Bain took it over. The Romney campaign has said the ad is part of the Obama administration’s attack on free enterprise.

The issue heated up over the weekend, when Obama surrogate Cory Booker, the Democratic mayor of Newark, N.J., said he felt “very uncomfortable” with the attacks on Mr. Romney’s work at Bain. Mr. Booker later clarified his remarks by saying Mr. Romney’s business record was fair game because he is touting it as a key credential in his campaign.

The president tried to explain why he thinks the criticism of Mr. Romney is warranted, while also attempting to show he isn’t indicting private equity and businesses.

“I think there are folks who do good work in that area and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries,” the president said. But, he said, maximizing profits is not always good for workers and communities.

He said Mr. Romney is touting as his business experience as his “main calling card” for why he should be president. “And so if your main argument for how to grow the economy is, I knew how to make a lot of money for investors, then you’re missing what this job is about. It doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity, but that’s not what my job is as president,” Mr. Obama said.

The Romney campaign released a video that includes comments from Mr. Booker and other Democrats who have expressed concerns about President Obama’s criticism of Mr. Romney’s work at Bain.

President Obama said he doesn’t see the issue going away. “This is not a distraction,” he said, adding later, “And that means I’ve got to think about those workers in that [GST Steel] video just as much as I’m thinking about folks who’ve been much more successful.”

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